Situations
進退兩難
진퇴양난
jìn tuì liǎng nán
Jin-toe-yang-nan
進
나아갈 진
退
물러날 퇴
兩
두 양
難
어려울 난
Character by character
Meaning
Hard to advance and hard to retreat.
Origin
Common in Chinese classics, describing a situation where either choice costs you.
How it is used
Used when both options are bad.
Hanja進退兩難
Simplified进退两难
Korean reading진퇴양난
Pinyinjìn tuì liǎng nán
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does Jin-toe-yang-nan mean?
進退兩難 · Hard to advance and hard to retreat.
Q. Where does Jin-toe-yang-nan come from?
Common in Chinese classics, describing a situation where either choice costs you.
Q. How is Jin-toe-yang-nan used?
Used when both options are bad.
Idioms in the same group
四面楚歌 Sa-myeon-cho-gaChu songs on all four sides — surrounded with nowhere to turn.累卵之危 Nu-ran-ji-wiAs precarious as a stack of eggs.風前燈火 Pung-jeon-deung-hwaA lamp flame before the wind — an extremely precarious state.五里霧中 O-ri-mu-jungInside a fog five li deep — completely unable to make sense of things.雪上加霜 Seol-sang-ga-sangFrost on top of snow — one misfortune stacked on another.轉禍爲福 Jeon-hwa-wi-bokDisaster turned into good fortune.
The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.